Our tubing trip (4 hours, $18) out in Vermont was one of my absolute favorite activities of the summer.

We got a group of friends together, packed lunch, snacks, beer and water in a cooler, and headed out for the 45-minute trip to BVO. (My friends insist this company far surpasses any tubing company in the area.)

The staff was friendly and accommodating and the equipment clean and in good condition. (The tubes even have bottoms so you don’t scrape anything as you cruise down the river.)

After a short (7 minutes?) van ride up Route 7, we were dropped off at our start point for the multi-hour trip. The staffer gave us a few instructions (watch your bum on the shallow areas, where to pull over for lunch) and sent us on our way promising to pick us up near the “burnt out RV” at 4 p.m.

The afternoon was spent cruising (sometimes rapidly) down the river. The day was gorgeous (sun, yes) and hot, which off set the always-cool Battenkill River waters.

We passed several other groups tubing, canoeing and boating along the way, bantering with some and sharing beers (well, my friends shared beers) with others.

It was, quite simply, a perfect day.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

If you are going to carry your cell phone, or a camera that’s not waterproof, get one of these boxes/bags.

There is no where to stop to go to the bathroom. Nature, my blogging friends, is your toilet.

Four hours is a while to be out there, so bring food. You can rent an extra tube (that’s what we did) to hold your cooler. Strap the tubes together with bungee cords (BVO has some).

Go for the four-hour trip. I thought this was going to be dreadfully long, but it ended up being the perfect amount of time. We left the water just as the air started to cool down, and weren’t out there so long that you start thinking “are we going to get out of here any time soon?!?”

Bring towels, and a change of clothes, but leave them in the car. Being in the car for nearly an hour with a wet suit is no fun.

For information, check out Battenkill Valley Outdoors’ Web site. They’re open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. You can call them at 677-3311.

18 Responses

Kristi – you’ve got to try the Esopus in the Catskills. Town Tinker Tube Rental. The ride up the mountain on the old school bus w/the quirky driver is an experience itself.

Perfect day trip – head over to Phoenicia (where the tube rental place is) up and down the creek a couple of times, then head into Saugerties to New World Home Cooking for an early dinner.

I have a friend who isn’t ‘brave’ enough to swim in anything but a pool – so she’s meets us at New World. It’s always a great time. Now I want to go ! Weather looks nice on Saturday, and with all the rain, water should be high (and fast) — might have to put an outing together!

I’ve done the Esopus and man was it kicking that day. The speed of the water was very fun but we were done in about 40 minutes. My only knock against that place is that they charge you per trip so when it’s going fast it could get expensive. Also, our group was saying how we wished the route was longer and more mellow. Try to bring a cooler on the Esopus and you’re going to be in for an adventure!

Tubing the Battenkill, or as the fly fisherman call it, “peeing used beer into the river while killing the fishing” has turned a once proud class A trout stream into a sewer of floating empty Coors and Bud light cans, and other flotsam (including used diapers)passing by between drunken flotillas of rude peons making as much noise as they can while floating through where you are casting your line. The day-tubers have driven away the people who used to pump actual cash into the local economy. They have driven two pro shops out of business and shuttered motels and cabins and shut down camp-grounds all up and down Rt.22. It may be fun, but it is a tragic waste of what the stream once was and what it once meant to so many who understood and loved it.

josie, good question. The short answer is “yes,” you absolutely could do this. (They often welcome camps — and groups with younger children — some of whom, I assume, aren’t strong swimmers.)

Now here’s the longer answer: I expect the river is fast again this year, as it was last August, thanks to all the rain. Despite the excessive downfall last year, only about 5 percent of the entire 4-hour run was deep enough to “swim.” Usually, we were in water that was about thigh/waist high, depending on height.

Also, everyone is “required” to wear a life jacket. I took mine off and put it in the bottom of the tube, but many tubers do leave their life jacket on.

And, finally, unlike white water rafting, the “rapids” in the river are never really fierce enough to toss you out of the tube. As a result, you’re very unlikely to end up in the river, unless you choose to jump out of your tube. Oh, and the river isn’t that wide (30 to 40 feet), so shore lines are always close by.

Josie – You don’t have to get out of the tube (except for lunch, of course). Just stuff your feet under the tube seat in front of you and enjoy the ride! I went with Syd & Dusty’s several years ago. Wicked good time!!!

Christine – For those of us who have spent years coming to love that river for the wonderful resource it once was, we are now in mourning over what it has become at the hands of people who just don’t give a damn. Sorry if you don’t want to hear it, but now that it has become a commercial sewer because of the tubers and canoers, someone has to write the epitaph.

This is a really fun trip! We went last month and the water was freeeeezing, my lips were literally purple by the end of about 3 hours so make sure its a HOT day! As for being a good swimmer, a friend of mine did get flipped over once (hit a tree on a spot where its a big turn in the river and the water moves really fast) and needed help getting out. There are also a lot of trees that line the river and you have to paddle at times to avoid hitting them! I was expecting to just float down the river and it was more work than I expected, still fun though: ) Also watch out for people swinging into the water although they should be looking out fot you. Anddd common sense I hope but be careful if drinking because there have been some accidents on the Battenkill because of tubers drinking and not realizing the power of the water.

Kristi – That I once saw some canoers pull up and have sex on the shore and partly in the river while busily taking care of more basic biological functions, well off the stream in the woods, providing a show more in line with the seamier topics you gravitate toward in your blog, does not in any way diminish from my lamenting the loss of this fine resource, so that some slob who moved up from NYC could decide to trash the resource to line his pockets. You put the topic out there and if any other fly-fisher-persons were to see it, I’m sure they would respond with the same type of disdain over the encouragement of more people to “wreak-reate” on this once fine stream.

#13,who’s to say that the fly fishers aren’t peeing and trashing the battenkill? I’d guess also that the tubers are helping to stimulate the local economy as much if not more than the catchers and killers of fish. Go find an untainted stream to do your dirty work and perhaps a different blog where your incessant negativity would be welcome.

I went tubing last weekend and usually go once a year. It really is a great time. One of my friends that came with us is an avid fisherman and he went tubing too. We came up on a guy fly fishing and chatted as we passed. There is no animosity as you claim.

I would recommend tubing to anyone who has not tried it. Aside from floating down the river and drinking… we saw several mink, deer, ducks and geese.

Several of you called and e-mailed to say you tried going tubing at Battenkill Valley Outdoors last weekend, but they were closed. I talked with Lisa at BVO today and she said they had to close for four days due to dangerously high levels in the river. They are open again, though. (The weather the next few days looks perfect for a tubing trip.)